1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to towing apparatus and, more particularly, to novel systems and methods for securing trailers to towing vehicles with hitches.
2. State of the Art
Trailers have been towed since the earliest days of the wheel. A cart or wagon towed behind an animal is a trailer. In modem times, trailers are secured to towing vehicles by a multiplicity of methods, including frame-mounted hitches and bumper-mounted hitches. Tractor-trailer rigs use fifth-wheel towing systems. Similarly, recreational vehicles sometimes use fifth-wheel towing systems or often a receiver-type mounted ball hitch.
A receiver hitch relies on a receiver cavity or tube securely mounted to the frame of a towing vehicle. The receiver is reinforced and provided with an aperture for receiving a trunnion. A trunnion may be secured into the receiver. On the trunnion may be mounted a hitch. The hitch typically may be a pin hitch or ball hitch but need not be limited thereto.
For recreational users, receiver-type hitches present several common problems. The more important problem may be the difficulty of attaching a greasy hitch to a vehicle and detaching the same after use. Although receiver-type hitches are generally adaptable to receive various trunnions with various types of hitches, the very nature of a receiver bitch may make it problematic. If a trunnion is not removed after use, then a person may accidentally strike a shin or knee on the extending hitch or trunnion when no towed vehicle is attached. If the hitch is removed, it is cumbersome to move, requires some immediate storage place, and may be filthy with grease. Due to the weight of the hitch and trunnion assembly, a person removing the trunnion and hitch from a receiver is likely to soil clothing.
Another problem with many types of hitches is the adjustment of altitude of the hitch itself. Recreational users may have multiple towed vehicles. For example, a boat trailer, a snowmobile trailer, a utility hauling trailer, and the like, may be manufactured at different and arbitrary hitch heights. Similarly, a hitch may be used on different vehicles having different heights. Accordingly, it may be advantageous to provide a hitch mount that may be mounted on any convenient mount, yet be easily adjustable, storable, secure, and so forth.
Thus, it would be an advance in the art to provide a hitch mount that can be stowed without projecting inconveniently far from the bumper, substantially within the envelope or footprint of a vehicle, or even without extending behind the bumper on certain embodiments. Ready access, and substantially weightless or self-supporting deployment of a hitch is extremely desirable as are adjustable height, stowaway positioning, and continual connection.
Along with an adjustment in altitude, it is common to use different sizes of ball hitches. Accordingly, selective stowage and presentation of multiple sizes of ball hitches on a single mount, without having to use a wrench to replace the ball hitch, alone or in combination with height adjustability would be a benefit and convenience.
Many vehicles having recreational and occupational use may also have appeal as luxury vehicles and users of such vehicles may also value the aesthetics of a hitch system when stowed. Accordingly, it would be an advancement in the art to provide a hitch system that hid components of the hitch system out of view when stowed. This is especially true of the hitch itself, which may be covered with grease, may be heavy, and may otherwise require difficult lifting by a user.